Hanmi Reports 2025 First Quarter Results

LOS ANGELES, April 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC, or “Hanmi”), the parent company of Hanmi Bank (the “Bank”), today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2025.

Net income for the first quarter of 2025 was $17.7 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2024. The return on average assets for the first quarter of 2025 was 0.94% and the return on average equity was 8.92%, compared with a return on average assets of 0.93% and a return on average equity of 8.89% for the fourth quarter of 2024.

CEO Commentary
“Our team delivered strong results in the first quarter with solid operating performance across all of our business lines,” said Bonnie Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We achieved our third consecutive quarter of net interest margin expansion, up 11 basis points to 3.02%, primarily driven by lower funding costs.”

“Deposits increased 3% driven by new commercial accounts and contributions from our newly opened branches, a testament to our core relationship-based banking model. Loan production was solid, fueled by healthy originations in residential mortgages and our SBA business. Importantly, we maintained our strong credit quality, and continued to effectively manage our operating expenses, resulting in our best quarterly efficiency ratio since the fourth quarter of 2023.”

“Overall, our first quarter results were well-balanced and reflected continued growth and positive momentum, including the successful opening of a new branch in the Atlanta region. Despite elevated macroeconomic uncertainty, our team’s focus, discipline, and commitment to providing exceptional service and market leading products positions us well to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.”

First Quarter 2025 Highlights:        

• First quarter net income was $17.7 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, unchanged from fourth quarter of 2024. Preprovision net revenues increased 5.9% from the prior quarter reflecting growth in net interest income, an expanding net interest margin, a solid contribution from fee-based activities, and disciplined expense management.
• Loans receivable were $6.28 billion at March 31, 2025, up 0.5% from the end of the fourth quarter of 2024; loan production for the first quarter was $345.9 million, with a weighted average interest rate of 7.35%, compared with loan production for the fourth quarter of $339.0 million, with a weighted average interest rate of 7.37%.
• Deposits were $6.62 billion at March 31, 2025, up 2.9% from the end of the fourth quarter of 2024; noninterest-bearing demand deposits at March 31, 2025 were 31.2% of total deposits.
• Net interest income for the first quarter was $55.1 million, up 3.1% from the fourth quarter of 2024. Net interest margin (taxable equivalent) increased 11 basis points to 3.02%; the average yield on loans declined two basis points to 5.95%, while the cost of interest-bearing deposits fell 27 basis points to 3.69%.
• Credit loss expense for the first quarter was $2.7 million, an increase from $0.9 million for the prior quarter. The allowance for credit losses increased $0.5 million to $70.6 million at March 31, 2025, or 1.12% of loans. For the first quarter, net loan charge-offs were $1.9 million, or 0.13% of average loans (annualized).
• Nonperforming loans were $35.6 million at March 31, 2025, or 0.57% of loans. Criticized loans decreased to $164.9 million, as special mention loans decreased to $118.4 million, while classified loans increased to $46.5 million.

For more information about Hanmi, please see the Q1 2025 Investor Update (and Supplemental Financial Information), which is available on the Bank’s website at www.hanmi.com and via a current report on Form 8-K on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. Also, please refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” herein for further details of the presentation of certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Quarterly Highlights
(Dollars in thousands, except per share data)

Results of Operations
Net interest income for the first quarter was $55.1 million, up 3.1% from $53.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase was primarily due to a decrease in deposit interest expense from a decrease in deposit rates. The average rate paid on interest-bearing deposits for the fourth quarter decreased 27 basis points to 3.69% from 3.96% for the fourth quarter of 2024, primarily due to the decrease in the average cost of time deposits to 4.17% for the first quarter from 4.55% for the fourth quarter of 2024. The average balance of interest-bearing deposits increased to $4.46 billion for the first quarter of 2025 from $4.36 billion for the fourth quarter. The average balance of time deposits was $2.35 billion for the first quarter of 2025, essentially unchanged from the fourth quarter. The average balance of noninterest-bearing deposits for the first quarter decreased to $1.90 billion from $1.97 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024. Net interest margin (taxable equivalent) for the first quarter was 3.02%, up 11 basis points from 2.91% for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Credit loss expense for the first quarter was $2.7 million, compared with $0.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. First quarter credit loss expense included a $2.4 million credit loss expense for loan losses and a $0.3 million credit loss expense for off-balance sheet items.

Noninterest income for the first quarter increased $0.3 million, or 5.0%, to $7.7 million from $7.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase was primarily due to a $0.6 million increase on gains from the sale of SBA loans. Gains on sales of SBA loans were $2.0 million for the first quarter of 2025, compared with $1.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. The volume of SBA loans sold for the first quarter increased to $32.2 million from $21.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, while trade premiums were 7.82% for the first quarter of 2025 compared with 8.53% for the fourth quarter. Mortgage loans sold for the first quarter were $10.0 million, with a premium of 2.50%, compared with $18.3 million and 1.96% for the fourth quarter. Gains on mortgage loans sold were $0.2 million for the first quarter, compared with $0.3 million for the fourth quarter.

Noninterest expense for the first quarter increased $0.5 million to $35.0 million from $34.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase was primarily due to a $1.6 million gain on the sale of an other-real-estate-owned property in the fourth quarter. Absent this gain, first quarter noninterest expense was down 3.2% sequentially due to decreases in professional fees, advertising and promotion, and other operating expenses, partially offset by a $0.5 million increase in salaries and benefits, which reflected seasonal first quarter increases. All other operating expenses decreased $0.7 million for the first quarter primarily due to the absence of a fourth quarter $0.5 million charge related to an SBA loan acquired in a previous acquisition. The efficiency ratio improved during the first quarter to 55.7%, compared with 56.8% for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Hanmi recorded a provision for income taxes of $7.4 million for the first quarter of 2025, compared with $7.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, representing an effective tax rate of 29.6% and 30.1%, respectively.

Financial Position
Total assets at March 31, 2025 increased 0.7%, or $51.1 million, to $7.73 billion from $7.68 billion at December 31, 2024. The increase reflected a $30.4 million increase in loans and a $24.2 million increase in cash, offset partially by a $7.6 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other assets.

Loans receivable, before allowance for credit losses, were $6.28 billion at March 31, 2025, up from $6.25 billion at December 31, 2024.

Loans held-for-sale were $11.8 million at March 31, 2025, up from $8.6 million at December 31, 2024. At the end of the first quarter, loans held-for-sale consisted of the guaranteed portion of SBA 7(a) loans.

New loan production was $345.9 million for the first quarter of 2025 with an average rate of 7.35%, while payoffs were $125.1 million during the quarter at an average rate of 6.40%.

Commercial real estate loan production for the first quarter of 2025 was $146.6 million. Commercial and industrial loan production was $42.3 million, SBA loan production was $55.2 million, equipment finance production was $46.7 million, and residential mortgage loan production was $55.0 million.

Deposits were $6.62 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2025, up $183.7 million, or 2.9%, from $6.44 billion at the end of the prior quarter. Driving the change was a $140.4 million increase in money market and savings deposits and a $72.8 million increase in time deposits, partially offset by a $30.0 million decrease in noninterest-bearing demand deposits. Noninterest-bearing demand deposits represented 31.2% of total deposits at March 31, 2025 and the loan-to-deposit ratio was 94.9%.

Stockholders’ equity at March 31, 2025 was $751.5 million, up $19.3 million from $732.2 million at December 31, 2024. The increase included $9.5 million in net income, net of dividends paid, for the first quarter. In addition, the increase in stockholders’ equity included a $10.4 million decrease in unrealized after-tax losses on securities available for sale, and a $0.3 million decrease in unrealized after-tax losses on cash flow hedges, due to changes in interest rates during the first quarter of 2025. Hanmi also repurchased 50,000 shares of common stock at a cost of $1.1 million, for an average share price of $22.49, during the quarter. At March 31, 2025, 1,180,500 shares remain under Hanmi’s share repurchase program. Tangible common stockholders’ equity was $740.5 million, or 9.59% of tangible assets at March 31, 2025 compared with $721.1 million, or 9.41% of tangible assets at the end of the prior quarter. Please refer to the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below for more information.

Hanmi and the Bank exceeded minimum regulatory capital requirements, and the Bank continues to exceed the minimum for the “well capitalized” category. At March 31, 2025, Hanmi’s preliminary common equity tier 1 capital ratio was 12.13% and its total risk-based capital ratio was 15.29%, compared with 12.11% and 15.24%, respectively, at the end of the prior quarter.

Asset Quality
Loans 30 to 89 days past due and still accruing were 0.28% of loans at the end of the first quarter of 2025, compared with 0.30% at the end of the prior quarter.

Criticized loans totaled $164.9 million at March 31, 2025, down from $165.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. The $0.4 million decrease resulted from a $21.2 million decrease in special mention loans, partially offset by a $20.8 million increase in classified loans. The $21.2 million decrease in special mention loans included loan upgrades of $20.5 million and amortization/paydowns of $0.9 million, offset by additions of $0.2 million. The $20.8 million increase in classified loans resulted from $22.8 million of loan downgrades and $3.4 million of equipment financing downgrades. Loan downgrades were primarily the result of a $20.0 million syndicated commercial real estate office loan designated as nonaccrual during the first quarter of 2025. Additions were offset by $2.7 million of equipment financing  charge-offs, $1.1 million of payoffs, $1.0 million of amortization/paydowns, $0.3 million of loan charge-offs and $0.3 million of loan upgrades.

Nonperforming loans were $35.6 million at March 31, 2025, up from $14.3 million at the end of the prior quarter. The $21.3 million increase primarily reflects additions of $26.1 million, offset by charge-offs of $3.0 million, pay-offs of $0.8 million, $0.9 million in paydowns, and loan upgrades of $0.1 million. Additions included $23.0 million of loans and $3.1 million of equipment financing agreements. Loan additions were driven primarily by the previously mentioned $20.0 million commercial real estate loan designated as nonaccrual during the first quarter of 2025.

Nonperforming assets were $35.7 million at March 31, 2025, up from $14.4 million at the end of the prior quarter. As a percentage of total assets, nonperforming assets were 0.46% at March 31, 2025, and 0.19% at the end of the prior quarter.

Gross charge-offs for the first quarter of 2025 were $3.2 million, compared with $3.4 million for the preceding quarter. Charge-offs included $2.8 million on equipment financing agreements. Recoveries of previously charged-off loans were $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2025, which included $0.8 million of recoveries on equipment financing agreements. As a result, there were $1.9 million of net charge-offs for the first quarter of 2025, compared to net recoveries of $0.1 million for the prior quarter.

The allowance for credit losses was $70.6 million at March 31, 2025, compared with $70.1 million at December 31, 2024. Specific allowances for loans increased $5.6 million because of a $6.2 million specific allowance on the previously mentioned $20.0 million commercial real estate loan designated as nonaccrual during the first quarter of 2025, and collectively evaluated allowances decreased $5.2 million. The ratio of the allowance for credit losses to loans was 1.12% at March 31, 2025 and at the end of the prior quarter.

Corporate Developments
On January 28, 2025, Hanmi’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend on its common stock for the 2025 first quarter of $0.27 per share. Hanmi paid the dividend on February 26, 2025, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 10, 2025.

Earnings Conference Call        
Hanmi Bank will host its first quarter 2025 earnings conference call today, April 22, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. EST) to discuss these results. This call will also be webcast. To access the call, please dial 1-877-407-9039 before 2:00 p.m. PST, using access code Hanmi Bank. To listen to the call online, either live or archived, please visit Hanmi’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.hanmi.com/ where it will also be available for replay approximately one hour following the call.

About Hanmi Financial Corporation
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hanmi Financial Corporation owns Hanmi Bank, which serves multi-ethnic communities through its network of 32 full-service branches and eight loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward–looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements about our anticipated future operating and financial performance, financial position and liquidity, business strategies, regulatory and competitive outlook, investment and expenditure plans, capital and financing needs and availability, plans and objectives of management for future operations, developments regarding our capital and strategic plans, and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. Although we believe that our forward-looking statements to be reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include the following:

• a failure to maintain adequate levels of capital and liquidity to support our operations;
• general economic and business conditions internationally, nationally and in those areas in which we operate, including any potential recessionary conditions;
• volatility and deterioration in the credit and equity markets;
• changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits;
• availability of capital from private and government sources;
• demographic changes;
• competition for loans and deposits and failure to attract or retain loans and deposits;
• inflation and fluctuations in interest rates that reduce our margins and yields, the fair value of financial instruments, the level of loan originations or prepayments on loans we have made and make, the level of loan sales and the cost we pay to retain and attract deposits and secure other types of funding;
• our ability to enter new markets successfully and capitalize on growth opportunities;
• the current or anticipated impact of military conflict, terrorism or other geopolitical events;
• the effect of potential future supervisory action against us or Hanmi Bank and our ability to address any issues raised in our regulatory exams;
• risks of natural disasters;
• legal proceedings and litigation brought against us;
• a failure in or breach of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, including cyberattacks;
• the failure to maintain current technologies;
• risks associated with Small Business Administration loans;
• failure to attract or retain key employees;
• our ability to access cost-effective funding;
• the imposition of tariffs or other domestic or international governmental policies;
• changes in liquidity, including the size and composition of our deposit portfolio and the percentage of uninsured deposits in the portfolio;
• fluctuations in real estate values;
• changes in accounting policies and practices;
• changes in governmental regulation, including, but not limited to, any increase in FDIC insurance premiums and changes in the monetary policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
• the ability of Hanmi Bank to make distributions to Hanmi Financial Corporation, which is restricted by certain factors, including Hanmi Bank’s retained earnings, net income, prior distributions made, and certain other financial tests;
• strategic transactions we may enter into;
• the adequacy of and changes in the methodology for computing our allowance for credit losses;
• our credit quality and the effect of credit quality on our credit losses expense and allowance for credit losses;
• changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and the ability of our borrowers to perform under the terms of their loans and other terms of credit agreements;
• our ability to control expenses; and
• cyber security and fraud risks against our information technology and those of our third-party providers and vendors.

In addition, we set forth certain risks in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K that we will file hereafter, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Investor Contacts:
Romolo (Ron) Santarosa
Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
213-427-5636

Lisa Fortuna
Investor Relations
Financial Profiles, Inc.
lfortuna@finprofiles.com
310-622-8251

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